Norodom Sihanouk

Norodom Sihanouk (31 October 1922-15 October 2012) was King of Cambodia from 24 April 1941 to 2 March 1955 (succeeding Sisowath Monivong and preceding Norodom Suramarit) and from 24 September 1993 to 7 October 2004 (preceding Norodom Sihamoni). He also served as Prime Minister from 20 June 1960 to 18 March 1970 (succeeding Chuop Hell and preceding Cheng Heng) and from 14 June to 24 September 1993 (succeeding Chea Sim), and as President of the State Presidium of Democratic Kampuchea from 17 April 1975 to 2 April 1976 (succeeding Sak Sutsakhan and preceding Khieu Samphan).

Biography
Norodom Sihanouk was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1922, and he was placed on the throne in 1941 by the French governor-general on the death of his grandfather. He was subsequently closely supervised by the French authorities. In 1946, when the expelled French returned, he extended a careful welcome and, despite nationalist resistance, he chose to cooperate with them in order to gain eventual independence. This was finally granted in 1953, in the context of the First Indochina War. He abdicated in favor of his father Norodom Suramarit and became Prime Minister. He built up his own political movement, and suppressed all other parties, which gave him control of Cambodian affairs until 1970. He steered a neutral course between the United States and the Soviet Union, which became all the more difficult after the outbreak of the Vietnam War. In 1970, he was deposed in a US-backed coup by Lon Nol. He was offered asylum by Zhou Enlai in China, where he founded FUNCINPEC. He returned in 1975 and became nominal head of state under Pol Pot, but in 1976 was put under house arrest. He went into exile again after the Vietnamese invasion in 1979. In 1982 he became president of an exiled coalition government, in alliance with the Khmer Rouge. He thus gradually managed to unite the opposition parties behind him, and be accepted by the UN as the official representative of the country. In a remarkable comeback, after the Vietnamese withdrawal from the country, he was able to return as interim President from 1991. He was proclaimed King, albeit with largely ceremonial powers, in 1993, and he abdicated in favor of his son Norodom Sihamoni in 2004.